Contents

Publisher's Summary

THIS TIME IT'S WAR... BETWEEN THE CREATURES THEMSELVES.

The Alienqueen is dead, the hive mind left to flounder... and on a world bereft of its only guiding force, a schism is now taking place: two strains of Alien, formerly united by one all-powerful mother, divide their forces for world-shattering, acid-drenched war.

On Earth athletes are flocking to the Goodwill Games. But some come with a deadly new tool; a drug called Fire, distilled from the very essence of Alien body chemistry.

The military wants it. Pharmaceutical kingpin Daniel Grant wants it. But the only place the essential ingredient can be found is on that terrible world, convulsed by Alien holocaust...

AND HUMAN GREED WILL ONCE MORE SEND HUMANITY TO HELL.

Plot

More than twenty years after the majority of the Xenomorphs infesting Earth were destroyed in Oregon, the fight to eradicate the creatures from the planet is finally reaching its conclusion and humanity is rebuilding. To celebrate, an international sporting contest, dubbed the Goodwill Games, is hosted in Iraq, with athletes from around the world competing. Several athletes use a legal performance-enhancing drug dubbed fire, although one athlete overdoses and experiences spectacularly increased physical prowess before killing himself by running into a wall at extreme speed.

Fire is in fact distilled from the Royal Jelly produced by Xenomorph Queens, and Daniel Grant, the selfish, egotistical CEO of the only company that produces it, is becoming increasingly desperate for supplies of the necessary Alien substance. In order to obtain more, he convinces the Colonial Marines of the potential military applications of the drug, and an expedition is duly organized to return to the Xenomorph home world to acquire more of the essential base ingredient. The mission is placed under the command of Colonel Kozlowski, who has extensive experience fighting the Xenomorphs during the cleanup of Earth but is racked with guilt over the death of her lover, Lieutenant Michaels, under her command.

Kozlowski assembles her team, to be accompanied by a group of Grant Corporation scientists. Grant himself also joins the mission, driven to do so in order to escape a violent criminal kingpin on Earth to whom he owes a significant amount of money. The team departs aboard the USS Razzia, and after waking from hypersleep begin training for the assault on the Xenomorph home planet. Grant's abrasive personality leads most of the Marines to develop a strong dislike for him, although he befriends a Corporal named Henrikson. Koslowski too begins to warm to Grant as she starts to see through his brash exterior, even finding herself becoming attracted to him. However, her feelings are tested when she discovers that Grant's scientists are incubating a Xenomorph Chestburster aboard the Razzia, hoping to use the Royal Jelly they intend to recover to evolve it into a Queen, thereby giving Grant Corporation a potentially limitless supply of Royal Jelly. Soon afterwards, the Chestburster is sabotaged and killed by unknown persons, although Kozlowski denies responsibility.

Grant's scientists provide the Marines with prototype acid-proof armor to assist them in their assault, and the team descends to the surface of the Xenomorph home world. As they breach the cloud layer, they discover a scene of carnage — following the destruction of the original Queen Mother on Earth, the Xenomorphs on the home world have split into two genetically dissimilar rival factions, and the common black Xenomorphs now wage a brutal civil war for supremacy with the rival red creatures. Despite this revelation, the team elects to continue. They quickly establish a secure beachhead near the black Hive using forcefields, but an attempt to expand it leads to a perimeter breach and several casualties.

To give themselves room to work, the team destroys the red Xenomorph's Hive with a nuclear strike, killing the Red Queen Mother and causing the remaining red Xenomorphs in retreat in disarray, while the black Xenomorphs take up the pursuit. With the black Hive now mostly deserted, the Marines kill the few royal guards and the Queen Mother and steal her Royal Jelly. As they prepare to leave, Henrikson reveals himself to be the saboteur, having been bought out by a rival company to Grant's. Kozlowski is wounded in the ensuring struggle, but she and Grant manage to kill Henrikson and escape the planet with the other survivors.

Recovering from her wounds aboard the Razzia, Kozlowski organizes a date with Grant, who vows to become a better man in light of the sacrifices made by the Marines and scientists on the expedition.